


Ordinary magic

by YvonneSilver



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Birthday Party, Dustin and Lucas show up as minor characters, Gen, Post-Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-29
Updated: 2016-11-29
Packaged: 2018-09-03 01:37:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8691412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YvonneSilver/pseuds/YvonneSilver
Summary: Three months after coming back and moving in with Chief Hopper (in my previous Stranger Things fic), Eleven attends a birthday party and learns about magic tricks.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [A_Artic](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=A_Artic).



> Thanks A_Artic, for encouraging me to keep thinking about this

Eleven was fidgeting. Hopper had bought her a necklace with two big interlocking circles explicitly for fiddling, and she was making grateful use of it.

“I don’t wanna go.”

Hopper looked up from his papers. Even after three months, Eleven didn’t say much without prompting, so when she did, he paid attention. “Are you sure?” When Eleven didn’t answer, he sighed and put down his pen. She remained standing in the middle of her room, with her left hand wrapped around her necklace and her right hand clenched by her side. She gave no sign of awareness of Hopper’s approach, so he crouched down next to her.

“What you’re feeling is called nervousness,” Hopper explained patiently. “It’s like worrying, but smaller and less focused. You think something’s going to go wrong, right?”

She gave a little head-twitch that could’ve been acknowledgement and could’ve been shaking off a non-existent fly.

“That’s completely normal. There’s a lot of unknowns in a birthday party. It’s scary.” How strange had his life become, that he had to explain social anxiety to a twelve-year-old who’d defeated an actual literal monster. Then again, she’d been dealing with monsters all her life. People however...

Hopper leaned one elbow on his knee and rubbed his chin. “Look, if you don’t want to go, we don’t go. But I think you’ll be glad you went. Don’t you want to see Dustin? And Lucas? And  _Mike_?”

Her answer came so softly he almost missed it. “Yeah.”

“Okay good.”

 

Hopper pulled to a stop in front of Dustin’s car, and killed the engine. “So. Do you want to wait in the car till your friends get here, and pretend we only just got here too?”

“Pretend?” Eleven looked up at him, waiting for an explanation.

Hopper thought for a moment, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. “It’s where you say something happened that didn’t really happen.”

“Like lying?”

“I suppose.”

Eleven snapped her head forward. “Friends don’t lie.”

He smiled warmly. “How right you are.” He leaned over and planted a kiss on her hair. "I’ll pick you up in two hours. If you want to come home sooner, just talk to Mrs Henderson, okay?”

 

* * *

 

 

Mike was surprised to see a familiar figure standing on the sideway outside Dustin’s front door. He didn’t catch Lucas rolling his eyes as he immediately hurried forward.

“Eleven! Hi!”

Eleven jumped, and let out a string of words that Mike hardly caught. “IwaswaitingforyoubecauseIdidn’twanttogoinsidealone.”

“Sorry, what?” Lucas asked as he joined them.

Eleven took a deep breath. “I didn’t want to go inside alone.”

Mike looked at her quizzically. “Why?” 

Lucas shoved him. “You wouldn’t get it, you’ve got two sisters. You don’t know what it’s like to go to anywhere on your own.”

“I don’t even like my sisters!” Mike exclaimed, affronted.

Lucas rolled his eyes. “That’s not the point.” He turned to Eleven. “Me and Mike are lucky ‘cause we live next to each other, so we always go to Dustin's birthdays together.”

Neither of them really knew how to respond to that. After a moment of silence, Mike blurted out: “You look good.”

She really did look good. Her hair was starting to grow out, a rich dark brown. There was a slight blush on her cheeks from waiting outside. She was wearing a yellow dress over black leggings, and a black blazer against the early spring chill.

“It’s cool you could come,” Lucas said. “We don’t see you enough.”

“I thought you’d be at school by now,” Mike added.

El shook her head. “Jim says I’m not ready yet.”

It was weird to hear her call chief Hopper by his first name, but Mike guessed it kinda made sense since he was sort of her dad now. He shrugged it off. “Let’s get inside.”

 

It turned out they were the last people to arrive (Mike’s fault, or more precisely, Holly’s fault, since she had stolen Mike’s present and torn the wrapping off, so he’d had to rewrap it last-minute). One of Dustin’s moms quickly ushered them into the living room. The show was about to start.

When Mike saw the familiar man standing in front of the group of kids, he heaved a deep sigh. Parents were so stupid sometimes. Magic was what they were into  _last_ year. Still, he thought as he sat down cross-legged on one of the pillows on the floor, it might be interesting to see if he could figure out how the tricks worked. El settled down next to him.

The magician turned to them with a wide, bright smile. “Welcome, children! Dustin, since you’re the birthday boy, why don’t you help me with my first trick?”

Dustin clumsily got to his feet, looking a little self-conscious. He spotted Mike, Lucas and Eleven sitting at the back of the group, and gave a little wave.

“C’mon guys, a little more excitement!” The magician encouraged. “Let’s give Dustin a hand.”

As the audience applauded, the magician picked up a stack of cards from the table, and fanned them out.

“Pick a card, any card. Now, show it to the audience. I’m not looking.” He made a big show out of covering his eyes and turning his back to the audience. It was all a little over the top. Sheepishly, Dustin turned his card to the group - eight of diamonds.

“Okay, make sure you remember your card. Keep it in the front of your mind. Here, put it back in the deck.” He held out the cards, slowly shifting through them. “Wherever you like, just stick it back in there, there you go.” He then proceeded to do a couple of intricate shuffles, flipping the deck from hand to hand, and letting the cards fall down from one hand into the other. 

“Right, I think that’s quite shook up, yes? Oh, but hang on, what have we here.” The magician leant forward, and made like he pulled a card from behind Dustin’s ear. There were a few half-hearted laughs from the audience. “Is this your card?” He turned the card to reveal the jack of diamonds. Dustin shook his head. “No? Hmm, seems like we’ll have to work a little harder.”

He lifted the stack of cards to eye-level and squinted in concentration. With his free hand, he waved over the stack a couple of times, never actually touching them. He brought the cards down in front of Dustin’s face. “Okay, now blow.”

Dustin looked skeptical for a moment, but he did as he was asked.

Finally, the magician carefully lifted the top card. “Is  _this_ your card?”

Dustin’s face split into a grin. “Yes it is!” He took the card from his hand and showed the rest of the audience.

 

Mike joined the rest of the kids in a polite applause, but beside him, El let out a sudden squeak. She sat up, bouncing up and down excitedly.

“El,” he whispered worriedly, “what are you doing?”

She stared at him for a moment, before turning back to the magician, who was ushering Dustin back to his seat.

“What?” Mike urged her, but she simply made another high-pitched noise and continued to bounce. People were starting to stare. “Okay, we gotta go.” He grabbed her hand, and pulled her to her feet.

 

In the hallway, Eleven calmed down a little. Mike gave her a moment to collect herself before prompting her again. “Can you tell me what’s going on?”

“Him. The guy.”

Mike looked over his shoulder at the living room door. “The magician?”

She nodded vigorously.

“That’s just Gabe, Melissa’s dad. He did a course or something. It was pretty cool when he did it last year at Caroline’s birthday party I guess, but we’re  _twelve_ now, we’re way too old for that stuff.”

“He can do what I can do!” El blurted out.

“Huh?”

“The cards. The knowing.” She gestured at her own head. “The brain magic.”

“Oh!” Mike had a lightbulb-moment. “No, it’s not like that.” He sat down on the stair, and El squatted down beside him, rapt with curiosity. “It’s a trick.”

“Trick?”

He thought for a moment. “It’s like a lie, but for fun. It’s not real magic. He only pretends to shuffle the cards. It’s only pretend magic. Like on tv.”

“Tv isn’t real?”

This was the great thing about talking to El, the conversation never went where you expected. “Only the news is. Star trek isn’t. It’s just people in face paint. I was pretty bummed when I found that out,” Mike confessed.

Eleven looked very concerned about that news. He waited for her to digest it. Finally, she seemed to grasp the idea. “So. He isn’t like me?”

“There’s no-one like you, El. You’re one of a kind.” He’d meant it as a compliment, but the thought seemed to upset her. He hurried on. “But pretend magic can still be fun! You can help me figure out how the tricks work!”

El’s face split into a grin again. “Okay!”

 

They spent the rest of the performance quietly whispering to each other. Mike told her about fake rings and mirrored boxes, and El suggested Gabe had trained invisible mice to do the scarf tricks. By the end, El just whispered “mice” at the end of every trick, and Mike would dissolve into helpless laughter.

  

* * *

 

 

El herself didn’t stop smiling until she was sitting in the front seat of Hopper’s car with silly string in her hair and a plastic baggy of candy in her lap.

“Did you have a good time?” Hopper asked.

El nodded. “Good time.”

 


End file.
